Poroshenko proposes that the EU send a diplomatic mission to the Donbas

Tuesday, March 13, 2018 2:00:41 PM

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with the Vice President of the European Commission, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. The President’s website reports that after the meeting he proposed that the European Union send a diplomatic mission to the Donbas.

"To understand the real situation in the Donbas and to see with your own eyes how Russia fulfills its part of commitments under the Minsk agreements, I appealed to Ms. High Representative with the proposal to send the second mission of Ambassadors of the Political and Security Committee to the Donbas soon. [Send them] now, to see how the situation has changed. I think it will be right,” he said and reminded that the first such mission took place in September 2015.

"Then I am sure that in June, none of the European capitals will think about easing sectoral sanctions against the Russian Federation in case the Minsk agreements are not implemented,” Poroshenko added.

During the negotiations, Poroshenko and Mogherini also discussed the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the separatist-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Poroshenko expressed the conviction that now is the time for the European Union to call Russia an aggressor and a party to the conflict and to facilitate the provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine by the EU member states.

The European Union had extended the economic sanctions against Russia to July 31, 2018.